https://www.google.com/search?q=web+hosting+plans+comparison, https://www.reddit.com/r/webhosting/

At the end of the day, how much time are you willing to spend on research to save less than $20/month?

DigitalOcean works for tens of thousands of people. Their $20/month is more than you ever likely to need. And if you're really cheap, they also have $5/month. Which is about the same as proverbial cup of coffee.

Trying to save on $5-$20 monthly expense makes little sense and there is a thousand of places on the internet better than HN to do such research.